time to get on board. And then, Home. Narnia and the North!"
    
    Shasta had so enjoyed his dinner and all the things Tumnus had been telling him that 
when he was left alone his thoughts took a different turn. He only hoped now that the 
real Prince Corin would not turn up until it was too late and that he would be taken away 
to Narnia by ship. I am afraid he did not think at all of what might happen to the real 
Corin when he was left behind in Tashbaan. He was a little worried about Aravis and Bree 
waiting for him at the Tombs. But then he said to himself, "Well, how can I help it?" 
and, "Anyway, that Aravis thinks she's too good to go about with me, so she can jolly 
well go alone," and at the same time he couldn't help feeling that it would be much nicer 
going to Narnia by sea than toiling across the desert.
    
    When he had thought all this he did what I expect you would have done if you had been 
up very early and had a long walk and a great deal of excitement and then a very good 
meal, and were lying on a sofa in a cool room with no noise in it except when a bee came 
buzzing in through the wide open windows. He fell asleep.
    
    What woke him was a loud crash. He jumped up off the sofa, staring. He saw at once 
from the mere look of the room-the lights and shadows all looked different-that he must 
have slept for several hours. He saw also what had made the crash: a costly porcelain 
vase which had been standing on the window-sill lay on-the floor broken into about thirty 
pieces. But he hardly noticed all these things. What he did notice was two hands gripping 
the window-sill from outside. They gripped harder and harder (getting white at the 
knuckles) and then up came a head and a pair of shoulders. A moment later there was a boy 
of Shasta's own age sitting astride the sill with one leg hanging down inside the room.
    
    Shasta had never seen his own face in a looking-glass. Even if he had, he might not 
have realized that the other boy was (at ordinary times) almost exactly like himself. At 
the moment this boy was not particularly like anyone for he had the finest black eye you 
ever saw, and a tooth missing, and his clothes (which must have been splendid ones when 
he put them on) were torn and dirty, and there was both blood and mud on his face.
    
    "Who are you?" said the boy in a whisper.
    
    "Are you Prince Corin?" said Shasta.
    
    "Yes, of course," said the other. "But who are you?"
    
    "I'm nobody, nobody in particular, I mean," said Shasta. "King Edmund caught me in 
the street and mistook me for you. I suppose we must look like one another. Can I get out 
the way you've got in?"
    
    "Yes, if you're any good at climbing," said Corin. "But why are you in such a hurry? 
I say: we ought to be able to get some fun out of this being mistaken for one another."
    
    "No, no," said Shasta. "We must change places at once. It'll be simply frightful if 
Mr Tumnus comes back and finds us both here. I've had to pretend to be you. And you're 
starting tonight-secretly. And where were you all this time?"
    
    "A boy in the street made a beastly joke about Queen Susan," said Prince Corin, "so I 
knocked him down. He ran howling into a house and his big brother came out. So I knocked 
the big brother down. Then they all followed me until we ran into three old men with 
spears who are called the Watch. So I fought the Watch and they knocked me down. It was 
getting dark by now. Then the Watch took me along to lock me up somewhere. So I asked 
them if they'd like a stoup of wine and they said they didn't mind if they did. Then I 
took them to a wine shop and got them some and they all sat down and drank till they feel 
asleep. I thought it was time for me to be off so I came out quietly and then I found the 
first boy-the one who had started all the trouble-still hanging about. So I knocked him 
down again. After that I climbed up a pipe on to the roof of a house and lay quiet till 
it began to get light this morning. Ever since that I've been finding my way back. I say, 
is there anything to drink?"
    
    "No, I drank it," said Shasta. "And now, show me how you got in. There's not a minute 
to lose. You'd better lie down on the sofa and pretend-but I forgot. It'll be no good 
with all those bruises and black eye. You'll just have to tell them the truth, once I'm 
safely away."
    
    "What else did you think I'd be telling them?" asked the Prince with a rather angry 
look. "And who are you?"
    
    "There's no time," said Shasta in a frantic whisper. "I'm a Narnian, I believe; 
something Northern anyway. But I've been brought up all my life in Calormen. And I'm 
escaping: across the desert; with a talking Horse called Bree. And now, quick! How do I 
get away?"
    
    "Look," said Corin. "Drop from this window on to the roof of the verandah. But you 
must do it lightly, on your toes, or someone will hear you. Then along to your left and 
you can get up to the top of that wall if you're any good at all as a climber. Then along 
the wall to the corner. Drop onto the rubbish heap you will find outside, and there you 
are."
    
    "Thanks," said Shasta, who was already sitting on the sill. The two boys were looking 
into each other's faces and suddenly found that they were friends.
    
    "Good-bye," said Corin. "And good luck. I do hope you get safe away."
    
    "Good-bye," said Shasta. "I say, you have been having some adventures."
    
    "Nothing to yours," said the Prince. "Now drop; lightlyI say," he added as Shasta 
dropped. "I hope we meet in Archenland. Go to my father King Lune and tell him you're a 
friend of mine. Look out! I hear someone coming."
    
    
    
    
    CHAPTER SIX
    
    SHASTA AMONG THE TOMBS
    
    SHASTA ran lightly along the roof on tiptoes. It felt hot to his bare feet. He was